Polish flood toll rises, volunteers scramble to protect Auschwitz

Poland's toll in floods that have hit central Europe rose to six yesterday, thousands of people were evacuated and volunteers scrambled to protect the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.

The body of a 67-year-old man was found in a swollen stream near the southern town of Bielsko-Biala, police said. Five other people have been confirmed dead over the past four days.

Among the hardest-hit communities were those on the River Vistula, which flows from southern Poland to the Baltic Sea in the north.

"More than 4,000 people are being evacuated from a district of Sandomierz," said Interior Minister Jerzy Miller, referring to a picturesque southern town of 25,000 people where dykes on the Vistula had burst.

"Only 1,000 of them were prepared to leave home last night when the evacuation was announced. Now the others are having to be evacuated in much more difficult conditions," Mr Miller said on Polish television.

A hotel frequented by foreign visitors was among the buildings evacuated in the southern tourist magnet of Krakow after the Vistula invaded several streets, fire brigade spokesman Andrzej Siakanka said.

Authorities in the city of 750,000 meanwhile ordered the closure of several schools threatened by flooding.

Elsewhere, volunteers scrambled to sandbag dykes near the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, an international symbol of occupying Nazi Germany's genocide of the Jews during World War II.

The site between the southern city of Oswiecim and the village of Brzezinka is now a state-run museum and memorial.

"Fire-fighters, residents of Brzezinka and museum staff have been sandbagging the dykes that protect the western part of Birkenau," museum spokesman Pawel Sawicki said.

The museum has been closed to visitors since Monday due to a flood alert on the nearby River Sola, with staff also moving archives up to safety on higher floors.